Christmas Customs in Catalonia During the vigil, night, midnight Mass( 24 th December) is an announcement of the beginning of the bustle of these special days that are characterized by a heightened sense of family: The houses are presided over by a cute and quirky character: "tió "who, along with the solemnity of the family feast are the main features of this day. On the same evening or waking, before Midnight Mass, typified by the "do the Tió shit", the "tió" is a tree trunk is covered with clothes and who has the magical power to expel gifts. Children, with some sticks, hit it hard while singing a song and shouting "shit tió" offers gifts. According to tradition, these powers were granted to him the night Jesus was born when shepherds were no present to offer the infant, he kept his food and they were left with nothing. When they stopped to rest sat on top of a trunk and got out all kinds of food. In many households still "shit" a ham, sweets and candies to be eaten during the holidays.

Caga Tió Here in Catalonia, we do the Caga Tió. The Caga Tió it’s a tree trunk that shit presents and sweets for children. The children thinks that the Caga Tió it’s alive and magic. We do it on 24th of December on night. For do it, we dress the eyes of the children so they can’t see anything. Then, the children sing a song (Caga Tió, ametlles i torrons, si no cagues res et donarem un cop de bastó, Caga Tió!). While they are singing, someone put the presents and the sweets, before the song end. Then, the children open the presents, and the Caga Tió goes to the forest to sleep until the next year.

On the 25th of December the family has a delicious lunch, we eat typical Spanish food

The CAGANER is a figure of native scenes in Catalonia. Often hidden in a corner,behind a bush,where he has to outdoors. It wearing white shirt,dark pants, red sash and hat. sashhat Often smoking a pipe. Currently represents celebrities : Santa Claus, Players of F.C.Barcelona, Actors…

At Christmas time the people get together at home to celebrate this holidays. We have a lot of things to do in this time. We celebrate the Steve’s Saint, Christmas Eve, Boxing Day, Holy Innocent's Day,… In this holidays we always have a family to celebrated it and this is the best thing of Christmas. The people are happy and all is beautiful and magic. We also put lights in the city and all the streets have a blue, yellow or red lights. The children are excited because they know that in this time they have a lot of presents. At Christmas time the people forget the problems and try to be happy.

The 31st of December, the last night of the year. We have a special dinner at home and we go to parties with family and friends. At midnight, we listen to the 12 strokes of the clock and we eat 12 grapes, one for each stroke. Eating all the grapes brings good luck for the New Year to start. After this, we all kiss and say ‘Happy New Year’ and people watch fireworks.

In Catalonia isn’t too much traditional Santa Claus and instead of him, the people who give us presents are “The Three Wise Men”. The tradition says that they come from East and go house by house giving presents to the people with their camels. Three Wise Men